


Seeing Red

by cannedpeaches



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: AU, Gen, I'm seriously not kidding when I say graphic violence, Slight Canon Divergence, because that's what Joel does, fatherly torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:01:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6608221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cannedpeaches/pseuds/cannedpeaches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one touches Joel's baby girl.</p>
<p>Tumblr request for a slight canon divergence, in which Joel gets to David right before that pivotal scene in winter, and then proceeds to kick ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GentleTouchGinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GentleTouchGinger/gifts).



> One last warning for violence. Please take care of yourselves!

It had been a long time since Joel had been shocked by anything, but even after all the things he’d seen over the last twenty years, this took the cake, by far.

“Jesus Christ,” he whispered. His whole body shook, and his lungs contracted and began begging for air. But he couldn’t breathe, not in here. Not in here, not with the --

The bodies. Human bodies. Trussed up like the pigs on his grandfather’s farm, hung in meat locker, waiting to be prepped for smoking. The memory of the pigs lined up with what he saw before him, so grotesque he almost laughed because the thought was so deranged. Then, his brain jogged him with a flash of red.

_Ellie._

“I gotta find her,” he muttered to himself, edging around the bodies. “I gotta find her.”

His hand landed on a doorknob, and he turned and pushed, praying it wouldn’t be locked. As the door gave way to a gust of snow-filled air, he thought, vaguely, that he’d never been happier to be in a snowstorm.

He emerged into the front room of some sort of shop. He slammed the makeshift freezer shut behind him and went to the front door. When he opened it, there was an even colder blast of air. And then the smell of smoke.

The building just down the street from him was engulfed in flames.

“Holy shit, _Ellie_ ,” he breathed, clutching his abdomen as he ran as fast as he could toward the burning building. He’d forgotten to look around for anyone who might be searching for him. He'd forgotten to pull out a weapon. Nothing mattered more right now than finding her.

As he came to a window and peered inside one of the broken windows, he heard a low thump and a whimper. A voice, soft, breakable, floated on the wind:

“I knew you had heart,” it hissed. The words crawled into Joel’s skull and sunk in his gullet, making him choke even more than the acrid smoke.

Joel vaulted himself into a kitchen, coming down hard on one knee. Warmth seeped over his fingers; he knew he’d torn his stitches.

“It’s okay to give up, you know,” the voice went on.

Joel pushed himself up and moved toward the voice. His boot crunched over a broken plate.

_Shit._

Joel and the man looked up at each other at the same time. The man was standing over Ellie, panting, as Ellie lay on the floor, clutching her ribs and moaning. The man’s face was shocked, but there was something else in his eyes, too. Something decidedly predatory.

Joel and the man drew their guns at the same time. Before Joel had his shotgun lined up, a stray bullet from the man’s pistol hit the wall next to Joel’s ear. Joel dove behind a counter, quickly checked to see that his gun was loaded, and listened hard. He had to get to Ellie.

“Guess that medicine really helped,” the man said almost conversationally to Ellie. “That’s alright. I like a challenge.”

“Fuck you,” Ellie spat, her voice weak. Joel heard another dull thud, and Ellie was moaning in pain again.

“Goddammit,” Joel yelled, his blood rushing hot in his ears, “get the fuck away from her!” He peeked around the side of the counter, but the man just fired another shot at him. It, too, went wide. It was enough time, however, to see that the man was slowly reaching down for Ellie.

It was Joel’s chance. He brought his shotgun to bear on the man and pulled the trigger. With a cry, the man collapsed, his knee now a mangled mess of blood and tendon. Joel pressed his lips together in grim satisfaction. As he moved closer, he said, in as steady a voice as he could manage, “Get up, Ellie. Get away.”

Ellie was already dragging herself into a sitting position. “But Joel --” she gasped.

“ _Now_ ,” Joel said. He was standing over the man now, and he never looked away, even as he stooped stiffly to give Ellie a hand up. When she was standing, he tugged her behind him. “Go on now,” he said. Some insane part of him was whispering in his ear: _Don’t let her see, don’t let her see._

“I’m not leaving you!” she said. She was wheezing, desperate. “We stick together.”

Joel shook his head. “Hide in the kitchen. Get away from here, alright?“

Ellie stepped out of his line of sight, but Joel knew she was still there, not far off. Joel ground his teeth in frustration, but even her proximity would not prevent him from finishing this business.

Joel poked at what was once the man’s knee with the barrel of his shotgun, and the man cried out. The man was still holding his pistol loosely in his right hand.

_Always a good place to start._

Joel stomped on the man’s right wrist, feeling the thin bones give way beneath his boot. The man cried out again.

“What do you want?” he asked, tears streaming down the sides of his face. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Nothin’ complicated,” Joel said. His voice was even, but dangerously low. He reached down for the front of the man’s shirt, pulling him up. “I just want you to know what happens when you touch my girl.” And with that, he pulled his fist back, landing it squarely on the bridge of the man’s nose with another satisfying crack.

Joel barely registered the man’s screams now, let alone the pain in his hand or abdomen.

“I’ll make it extra clear to you,” Joel went on. He pulled his revolver out, flipped it over so he was holding the barrel, and struck the man across his left cheekbone with the grip. “Nothin’ good happens to people who touch my girl. _Nothin’._ ” Joel smashed his gun across the man’s right cheekbone before dropping him to the floor again. The man’s head lolled uselessly as he groaned.

“Now, I want you to do something for me,” Joel said, pressing one booted foot to the man’s chest and leaning in. “You payin’ attention?”

The man moaned. Joel sighed, unlocked the safety on his revolver, and shot through the man’s right hand. The man howled.

“You payin’ attention?” Joel repeated.

“Yes! Yes!” the man cried.

“Good,” Joel said. “Now you listen close. My girl and I, we’re quittin’ this place. You better tell all your buddies to let us leave in peace. And then you’re _not_ comin’ after us, you hear?”

“Yes, yes,” the man moaned incoherently. “Leave, please leave.”

Joel stepped off the man, satisfied. “Alright.” And then he aimed his shotgun straight between the man’s eyes and pulled the trigger one last time. Ellie’s attacker bloomed in gore. Joel took a moment to watch the blood spread across the floor.

Then he holstered his guns and went into the kitchen. Ellie was waiting there, her eyes wide. Joel didn’t need to ask her how much she’d seen.

“C’mon, baby girl,” he murmured, putting a hand on her shoulder. It was a credit to her, Joel would think later, that she didn’t flinch away from him. “Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the bulk of this yesterday, and as you can probably tell, I was not in a great mood, ha. In all seriousness though, thank you [GentleTouchGinger](http://archiveofourown.org/users/GentleTouchGinger/pseuds/GentleTouchGinger) for the request! I'm hoping to take more of these, so if you have any requests, feel free to leave me a comment or drop me a line on [Tumblr](http://cansofpeaches.tumblr.com/).


End file.
